WICHITA, Kansas — The outcome of an effort to enshrine abortion rights in Missouri’s constitution could have sweeping ramifications for access in Kansas and beyond, according to health care providers and analysts.
Missourians will vote in November on a constitutional amendment that would allow abortions up to fetal viability, or around 24 weeks of pregnancy — similar to the 22-week limit in Kansas. The Missouri Supreme Court decided on Tuesday to allow Amendment 3 to remain on the ballot, a move denounced by anti-abortion activists who sought to block its inclusion.
If the measure passes, it would enable Missourians to obtain abortions in their home state for the first time since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, triggering a near-total abortion ban.
But it could also make it easier for Kansans — and residents of other nearby states — to secure appointments closer to home as they navigate fluctuating clinic availability in a region with a patchwork of bans and gestational age limits. In Kansas, most clinics that provide abortions have consistently said they don’t have enough appointments to meet overwhelming demand from patients traveling from other states.
“It would definitely allow another access point and reduce some of the pressure that I think a lot of clinics and providers are facing right now,” said Candace Gibson, state policy director for the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights.
Thousands of Missourians travel to Kansas for abortions each year. That was true even before Missouri’s strict abortion ban took effect, due to a 72-hour waiting period and other restrictions that encumbered patients and forced some clinics to close.
Guttmacher estimates that more than 2,800 Missourians sought abortions in Kansas in 2023, along with 560 patients from Arkansas and 180 from Louisiana — patients who might have chosen to get an abortion in Missouri if they’d had the option.
Planned Parenthood Great Plains operates four clinics in western and central Missouri. But President and CEO Emily Wales said the organization’s Missouri locations stopped offering abortions in 2018 due to severe limitations state lawmakers placed on providers and patients. A St. Louis-based Planned Parenthood affiliate offered abortions until 2022.
If Amendment 3 passes, Wales said the organization aims to again offer abortions in central Missouri and the Kansas City, Missouri, area. That would move access closer not only for Missourians, but also for residents of Arkansas and Louisiana, too. Wales said it would also make it easier to secure appointments in Kansas, lessening some of the demand there.
“We’re evaluating right now what it would look like to have access at clinics where, previously, we couldn’t even contemplate it because of state restrictions,” she said. “We’re already talking through the operations pieces — what potential additional training do our staff need? What equipment needs do we have?”
If voters approve the Missouri ballot measure in November, the constitutional amendment will take effect in December due to a 30-day waiting period. Experts also expect to see more legal challenges that could slow clinics from resuming care.
More than eight in 10 patients at the Wichita clinic Trust Women travel from other states, including a significant portion from Missouri and more than half from Texas alone.
Jessica Wannemacher, acting chief strategy and operations officer, said the clinic is currently able to offer appointments to the majority of those who call seeking them. That represents a sharp turnaround from the intense demand they experienced in the wake of Roe being overturned, and reflects the opening of three new clinics in Kansas in the past two years.
But she said the clinic is working on narrowing the time patients must wait between scheduling an appointment and receiving an abortion.
“Instead of (several) weeks out, let’s try to book them five to seven days out,” she said, “because this is a very time-sensitive situation.”
Carol McDonald, the clinic’s interim vice president for external affairs, said the Missouri ballot measure has the potential to alleviate some of the pressure on clinics like Trust Women.
“In an environment where you've got 20-plus states that either totally ban or in some way restrict access to abortion, people have to come to places like Kansas to get care,” she said, “and it's going to continue to put a strain on the entire ecosystem.”
It’s unclear if the Missouri amendment will pass. One poll in August found 52% support for the measure. Votes in other states — including Kansas and other Republican strongholds like Kentucky — have shown that even conservative-leaning electorates often vote in favor of abortion rights.
“People support abortion access,” said Gibson, the Guttmacher state policy analyst. “They want to make sure that their loved ones, their neighbors, the people in their community can access this care.”
Advocates like Wales are hopeful that Missouri voters will choose to enshrine abortion rights, similar to Kansas voters’ rejection of an anti-abortion ballot measure in 2022.
“Kansas really did pave the way for this,” she said. “I think it has made a real difference to every single state that has brought (an abortion ballot measure) to the people that Kansas did it first. People wanted to protect their right to make medical decisions.”
Rose Conlon reports on health for KMUW and the Kansas News Service.
The Kansas News Service is a collaboration of KCUR, KMUW, Kansas Public Radio and High Plains Public Radio focused on health, the social determinants of health and their connection to public policy.
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